Newspeak: Term ‘Alcoholic’ Banned for Being Too Offensive by Woke UK Health Officials

Two men with a jug of moonshine, ca. 1915 (Photo by Kirn Vintage Stock/Corbis via Getty Im
Kirn Vintage Stock/Corbis via Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

Politically correct health bosses in the United Kingdoom have banned the use of the word “alcoholic” for supposedly being too offensive, alongside a host of other words, including gendered language.

Guidance drawn up by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which serves the National Health Service (NHS) branches in both England and Wales, has introduced a swath of newspeak-esque speech codes for healthcare professionals.

Among the words and phrases that have run afoul of the PC brigade include the term alcoholic, which was baneed in favour of the lengthy “those who misuse alcohol”, according to The Sun newspaper.

Healthcare staff were also told that they should say “people who use drugs” rather than “drug addicts” and “people who smoke” instead of “smokers”. In addition, the Health Department branch said that “rough sleepers” should now be referred to as “people who experience homelessness”.

The pet issue of the woke left, changing language on gender, was also featured in the NICE guidance, with words such as men and women being scrapped entirely.

“You can usually use gender-neutral language if the population is broad. This means using ‘people’, ‘they’ and ‘them’ instead of ‘women’, ‘men’ and ‘his’ or ‘her’,” the health bosses wrote.

Commenting on the latest newspeak from the medical establishment, Conservative MP Nigel Mills said that it was “just woke nonesense”.

“They should stop being so politically correct and instead look to do something useful to help the country,” the Tory MP added.

In a statment, NICE said: “Our approach is consistent with the NHS and other health bodies and we keep the guide under review.”

The inflitration of woke language guide into the British medical establishment has ramped up in recent years, with the NHS Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) bragging last year that it had replaced words like “mothers”, “women” for the likes of “birthing people” and “people with cervixes”.

The UK’s top medical journal has also previously got in on the politically correct push, publishing an article that was critisised for dehumanising women by referring to them as “bodies with vaginas“.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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